Fossil Girls
Alex Wollinka
When we are split open and sewn shut,
we will never stop shaking.
Even in death,
buried with tectonic plates
that grind like bone on bone.
I am a shell of petrified skin.
My skeleton whistles in the wind,
singing songs of erosion,
and my mouth is full of scars
that do not speak.
There is nothing to be said
that does not need to be said again and again,
growing bigger and deeper with each repetition.
Until my emptiness becomes an echo chamber
until I am digging a pit– becoming a cavern--
A mass grave for hollow words.
Everything begs, please rest.
In peace or in pain, please rest.
Stop trembling and lie still
until they dig up your bones
once more.